Book report: The Post-Birthday World
I've been in kind of a reading slump lately; I'm reading a lot, but nothing had really impressed me since My French Whore. Thankfully, I hit the jackpot lately with a few really good books that stayed with me even after I finished them--for me, that's one of the hallmarks of a good book.
I put my name on the reserve list for The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver even though I thought the title could not have been worse. I still think the title was a mistake, but the book stopped me in my tracks. The premise is that in the first chapter (which takes place on another main character's birthday, hence the name), the protagonist, Irina, is faced with a choice. From that point on, there are two of each successive chapter, one that follows the story where she's made choice A and the other where she made choice B. And each set of chapters has roughly the same plot, but the actions that take place are completely and not-so-completely different depending on which version of the story it is.
In the book Irina is choosing between two men--staying with her long-time, dependable partner or leaving him for a fling with a bad-boy character. That makes the whole thing sound stupid and cliched, but the concept really resonated with me, since I've been preoccupied, especially lately, with how the choices we make, whether it's a school or a job or a partner, affect the direction of the rest of our lives. The thing I really liked about Shriver's book is that she didn't favor one choice or other as the obviously right one; there was plenty of good and bad in both versions of Irina's future. And what I found most intriguing was that, like the first chapter, there was only one last chapter, written ambiguously enough that it could have fit either version of the story. It was kind of comforting to think that no matter what, her life ended up turning out pretty much the same--although if that's the case, it's a little depressing to think that she (and, by extension, we) spent so much time agonizing over and second-guessing her choice.
To make things all about me as usual (but, hey, this is my blog, right?) I read the book in the middle of yet another round of obsessing about finding a job. To say I haven't been feeling a lot of love from the academic library world would be an understatement, and going back and forth about applying to public libraries and whether or not I'd be prematurely closing off one option in favor of another I'm not so sure about has been keeping me up at night.
In addition, I'm going to be meeting up with my old college roommate when my mom and I visit New York City in a couple of weeks, and although I'm thrilled about seeing her again after 6 years, knowing that I'll be hearing all about her life in NYC and her successful career as an editor at a big publishing house is going to make me second-guess every major choice I've made since college graduation is making me apprehensive about even getting together. Much as I hate to admit it, I'm not at the point right now where it's easy for me to be happy for other people without feeling horribly jealous of their success or self-confidence or happiness.
In that sense, though, the ending of Shriver's novel will make it a tiny bit easier to get over myself. Who knows--maybe in this choose-your-own-adventure world there really is some kind of master plan that's ultimately dictating our actions. And maybe believing that will make it a little easier to sleep at night no matter what choices I end up making.
************
I put my name on the reserve list for The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver even though I thought the title could not have been worse. I still think the title was a mistake, but the book stopped me in my tracks. The premise is that in the first chapter (which takes place on another main character's birthday, hence the name), the protagonist, Irina, is faced with a choice. From that point on, there are two of each successive chapter, one that follows the story where she's made choice A and the other where she made choice B. And each set of chapters has roughly the same plot, but the actions that take place are completely and not-so-completely different depending on which version of the story it is.
In the book Irina is choosing between two men--staying with her long-time, dependable partner or leaving him for a fling with a bad-boy character. That makes the whole thing sound stupid and cliched, but the concept really resonated with me, since I've been preoccupied, especially lately, with how the choices we make, whether it's a school or a job or a partner, affect the direction of the rest of our lives. The thing I really liked about Shriver's book is that she didn't favor one choice or other as the obviously right one; there was plenty of good and bad in both versions of Irina's future. And what I found most intriguing was that, like the first chapter, there was only one last chapter, written ambiguously enough that it could have fit either version of the story. It was kind of comforting to think that no matter what, her life ended up turning out pretty much the same--although if that's the case, it's a little depressing to think that she (and, by extension, we) spent so much time agonizing over and second-guessing her choice.
To make things all about me as usual (but, hey, this is my blog, right?) I read the book in the middle of yet another round of obsessing about finding a job. To say I haven't been feeling a lot of love from the academic library world would be an understatement, and going back and forth about applying to public libraries and whether or not I'd be prematurely closing off one option in favor of another I'm not so sure about has been keeping me up at night.
In addition, I'm going to be meeting up with my old college roommate when my mom and I visit New York City in a couple of weeks, and although I'm thrilled about seeing her again after 6 years, knowing that I'll be hearing all about her life in NYC and her successful career as an editor at a big publishing house is going to make me second-guess every major choice I've made since college graduation is making me apprehensive about even getting together. Much as I hate to admit it, I'm not at the point right now where it's easy for me to be happy for other people without feeling horribly jealous of their success or self-confidence or happiness.
In that sense, though, the ending of Shriver's novel will make it a tiny bit easier to get over myself. Who knows--maybe in this choose-your-own-adventure world there really is some kind of master plan that's ultimately dictating our actions. And maybe believing that will make it a little easier to sleep at night no matter what choices I end up making.
************
I realize that that was just one book. But it's almost 3:00, which means it's time to make dinner before I go to work. So stay tuned.
posted by Madame Defarge at 2:19 PM
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